Assassin’s Creed: My Thoughts

I finally finished Assassin’s Creed a few days ago after not having played it for months, and I have to say I greatly enjoyed it. Genetic memories may not be good science, but who cares? It’s an alternate universe anyway–you have to suspend disbelief in exactly the same way for even wackier things in movies all the time. I really liked the story and I think the ending was perfect.

The game is incredibly well executed on many levels–the production values of the graphics, animations, audio… I didn’t mind the cinematic sequences at all. I actually liked the story, so I enjoyed them. Plus you can usually still move your character around a bit during those parts. Ironically I generally ended up using that ability to try to find a place to stand that would make my guy look cool during the sequence anyway.

There are things they could have done better; I got pretty frustrated with the battles towards the end, and the fact that templars could apparently see me on rooftops from the ground a block or more away made one specific mission (where I had to kill 5 guys in 4 minutes, and there were two templars stationed near the same area) very frustrating until I figured out what was going on and wiped them out.

It would be cool if, for the sequel, there was more of an element of blending in, perhaps through disguise–and at least making some people in the crowd look a little similar to Altair. That was a bit like Clark Kent’s glasses, the idea that by walking slowly no one would notice all the weapons visible on your person. I also thought it was a little silly how much Altair disdained the use of poison; it seems like this would be an essential tool of an assassin (especially since I’ve read the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies).

But I really enjoyed the game, and if the sequel lives up to its quality, I will buy it.

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Over the weekend I started playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and am enjoying it immensely. I never played the other Metroid Prime games, but thankfully that is not necessary.